The story below is a work of fiction. It is a love story and will involve sex between young gay males. All the usual rules apply.If it's illegal for you to read this or if you're under 18, don't!You might have read the story before as it used to be in the adult friends section. But after editing it, I thought it was more a youth-oriented story.The story here is exactly the same as the original, but it was a little improved and the characters are a couple of years older to make it more real and believable. I think they were a bit too young in the original.

Feedback is welcome
and appreciated. This is my first story, so I'd really love to know
what you think, getunitedtoo@yahoo.com

Join my yahoo
group to read more, see pictures of the characters and read the
band's message board,

The interview had
been given. It was 7.30 pm on the eve of the article's publication
and we knew than in less than 12 hours, people would start reading
our coming out.

We were all
having dinner together in the living room after a day's rehearsal.
David had tried to cook Chinese food, even though he had no idea what
he was doing, but since he was half-Chinese, we had all pressured him
into cooking something for us.

After making a
mess in the kitchen, and having a good laugh with Rachel and Elaine
who had tried to help, they had given up and had just decided to
order.

Rachel seemed to
really like him and he had been spending a lot of time with her, and
consequently with us. He was a great guy and we had totally accepted
him into the little family that we were.

We were all
sitting cross-legged on cushions on the floor to respect the Chinese
tradition I suppose, and the atmosphere around the large glass,
guitar-shaped coffee table was not as relaxed and as it usually was.
We were not our usual cheerful selves.

"Oh well,"
David said as he chewed his food, "this tastes a lot better than
what I would have cooked," he joked.

"Sweetie,
please, eat something," Rob's mother told him. She had flown to
London to be with us for a few days. She was quite motherly and as
much as we were trying to be strong and positive, I think we kind of
needed that motherly love and support. It was comforting.

"I can't,"
he sighed, staring at his plate for a few seconds before getting up
to slowly walk upstairs, dragging his feet.

We all looked at
each other and I started getting up, but Jane stopped me.

"Wait, let
me go talk to him," she told me.

I hesitated
because I, too, couldn't eat anything and I kind of wanted to be
alone with Rob, but I agreed.

"Alright,"
I said, sitting back down.

She walked
upstairs and they all continued eating silently while I just stared
at my sweet and sour chicken as if it was just a piece of uneatable
plastic. For at least five minutes, not a word was spoken. Even Lucas
was quiet, sitting calmly on the couch with a toy while we ate.

"It's gonna
be a long night," Damon said with a sigh. We looked at him and
they all laughed a little at the way he had said that, but I didn't.

Jordan was
sitting down next to me and he gently rubbed the back of my neck as
he said,

"I know you
don't want to hear this right now, but I'm sure everything's gonna be
fine. Our fans are gonna love this," he said with a laugh.
"You'll feel much better in a few hours."

I stared into
space, I didn't want to look at them. I didn't want to see the look
in their eyes, because I knew that even though they were trying to be
positive about this, even though they were trying to be strong for
us, I knew they were just as worried as Rob and I were. But it felt
good to know that we had their unconditional support. And I hoped we
would soon have the support of the public as well. Because the thing
was that, being around people who knew about us and accepted our
homosexuality had kind of spoiled us and it was becoming increasingly
difficult not to show affection when we were in public, since we were
so used to being ourselves at home and around our friends.

From now on, we
won't have to hold back anymore. That made it so worth it. Now, I'm
not saying that we were going to make out constantly in front of
everyone but I was looking forward to being able to simply hug Rob,
give him a kiss on the cheek, a peck, or take his hand in mine
without having to take a quick scan around us first.

"May I say
something?" this girl said.

"Please,"
Damon told her, almost desperate for a conversation.

She smiled. I
think she was called Lucy, but I wasn't sure. I hadn't really paid
attention when Damon had introduced me to her. I didn't even know who
she was with really. At first, I thought she was with Damon but then
I saw Jordan kissing her so.... oh what did I know? maybe she was
just with both of them. I wouldn't be that surprised if she was.

Those two, they
were so sharing their girlfriends ...actually, the word 'conquests'
would be more appropriate.

During the tour,
I had seen on more than one occasion a girl or even two girls come in
or come out of their hotel room, and I highly doubted that one of
them would be a good boy and just sleep, while the other had sex with
her, if you know what I mean. So I was pretty sure they had done some
pretty wild shit. I'm not saying that they had done anything gay or
had even touched each other, but I bet they would often have sex with
the same girl... at the same time. I would swear to it! Rob and I had
teased them about it and even though they hadn't openly admitted it,
they hadn't denied it either, which made us think that we were
probably right.

We didn't have
that many opportunities to find out whether we were or not since they
had decided that they would not tell us anything and let us
speculate. Plus, they almost never talked to us about their sex life,
not seriously anyway. I mean, why would they? It's not like we were
extremely interested to know what they were doing with their
girlfriends. If they wanted to talk about girls, they had each other.
Didn't need to talk to their gay friends... although, Jordan was
often asking Rob before going out, "how do I look? would you
snog me?" Because knowing how picky Rob was, he had decided that
if Rob found him attractive, then the girls would too and so he was
good to go!

And since we had
all grown up together and now lived together, in hotel rooms or at
home, we had all seen each other naked at one point or the other so
you know, there was no big surprise there, no big inhibition. But
yet, we had never really been in the habit of "I'll show you if
you show me," and we had never even watched porn or jerked off
together. Damon was more modest than Jordan so it surprised me a
little that he would go for that, but I knew how open Jordan was
about sex so if Damon was horny enough, I supposed it didn't bother
him that much to screw some girl in front of Jordan. They probably
thought it was a very Rock n Roll thing to do!

Anyway, so this
girl, Lucy... I think, started saying,

"I'm a fan,
right! And I'm not gonna lie to you, when I found out, I was a bit
surprised, a lot actually, because it's not... I don't know, it's
just not obvious. But I honestly believe that you guys are great,
your music is great and it's much more important than your sexuality.
And I can honestly say that what made me buy your albums are your
songs, before I even knew anything about you. So I'm pretty sure most
people are not gonna give a shit. They will just respect your honesty
and let your live your life the way you want. As long as you keep
writing the kind of songs you have written so far, trust me, you'll
be fine."

"I totally
agree with that too,” David said. “It was the same for
me, I bought your albums because I saw you live and I totally loved
the gig and the songs."

Jordan sighed,
"you should tell Rob that."

I was resting my
body against the couch, still staring at the same piece of plastic...
I mean chicken and I suppose I looked very preoccupied.

"Mark, this
is a good thing," Rachel said, "you'll feel so liberated
tomorrow."

"Look,
thanks guys, I know you want to help but whatever you say right now
won't change the way Rob and I feel. And don't take this the wrong
way, but you can't really understand what's going on in our heads
right now."

"Look we
gotta do something to keep our minds off this," Jordan said.

"Yeah, why
don't we go out?" Elaine suggested. "Just party and laugh
your worries away. Come on, it might be the very last time you can go
out without being bullied," she laughed

Dylan gave her a
dirty look and I just looked at her and said blankly, "it's not
funny!"

"You're
right, I'm sorry," she apologized

I took a deep
breath and continued staring at my plate. They started talking about
the tour and the rehearsals and I just listened absently. A few
minutes later, my cell phone rang. I didn't know the number but I
picked it up anyway.

"Hello,"

"Hey Mark,
c'est Damien," he said.

"Oh, salut!"

"Comment tu
vas? he asked me. I told him I was okay, but a bit worried as I stood
up and walked away, even though the guys couldn't really understand
me when I spoke French. He told me he was in France and couldn't stay
on the phone very long. He just wanted to know how I was doing and
tell me that he was with me. I had told him about our decision to
come out and he was a bit perplexed to hear that we were actually
going to go public. I knew he was out to his friends but not to his
parents, so obviously, coming out to the entire world was to him a
pretty huge deal, and the fact that I was a year younger than him and
already about to come out publicly still baffled him a little.

We often called
or emailed each other, even though Rob didn't particularly loved it.
But really, we were just friends. I had not seen him since the end of
the recording and he had never made a pass at me since that day in
the studio. He was probably still hoping something could happen
between us but he was smart enough to realize that it really
couldn't.

We talked for a
few minutes. I liked our conversation, he was an interesting person
to talk to, he would always find either fun or serious topics to
discuss. Plus, he made me practice my French. He didn't let me talk
to him in English anymore. And I think it annoyed Rob even more,
because he could never understand what we talked about. It's not like
I was trying to hide anything from Rob by speaking French, I was
always honest with him about talking to Damien, and I even told him
what we talked about, but hey, what could I do? He was jealous and I
was not going to change him.

After hanging up
the phone, I joined the guys in the living room again and sat back
down.

"Was that
Damien?" Rachel asked me and I nodded yes.

"Did he want
to know if you were still with Rob?" Jordan asked with a laugh.

Damon chuckled
and said, "yeah, maybe he hopes this whole coming-out will drive
you mad and break you up."

I just looked at
them with a slight smile on my face and shook my head.

Lucas was sitting
on Jordan's laps but he got down and came over to me. I stood up,
picked him up and walked away to spend some time alone with him. At
least, he was not going to talk about it.

"Maaark,"
Jordan called, "you're not gonna sulk, are you?"

"No," I
just told him, and started walking up the stairs.

Lucas cuddled up
to me as I walked up the stairs and I realized that all of this
wasn't so important after all. So what if some people didn't accept
us for who we were. As Bono had told us over 2 years ago now, it's
the people you love who are really important, not fame and money. I
knew Lucas would always love me unconditionally and it was so much
more important than the opinion people I didn't even know could have
of me. We were not gonna let our desire to succeed force us to live a
lie. We had to be true to ourselves.

I couldn't help
but worry, but deep down, I knew coming out would not be such a big
problem. We would still have fans. Now, I gotta admit, I wanted the
band to have a major influence on the music scene in the long run. I
still wanted us to be around in 20 years, and I was a bit worried
that coming out would jeopardize this, because I didn't want to be
categorized, to touch only a minority. I wanted UNI to touch
everyone, not just gay people you know.

We didn't want
our homosexuality to be everything about us. It was part of the
band's identity, but it was only a small part, not everything that we
were. So I truly hoped that people would not categorize us.

I guess we would
soon find out!

There were a few
lies at the beginning of the article about the reasons why we had
decided to come out. Because of course, they were not going to write
that they had blackmailed us. So we decided to say that someone was
planning to out us, and that we had decided to come out first.

The article was
pretty good. We liked it all right. At least, it was the true story.
I liked the way they had done it. They had started by focusing the
article on Rob and then started talking about me, and it was pretty
cool actually. I could just imagine our fans go... No fucking
way!

The article was
very decent. They had definitely highlighted the fact that rob and I
were in a serious relationship. I guess they considered it a more
acceptable gay lifestyle if our relationship could be a copy of a
heterosexual one. It was certainly old-fashioned considering the
reality of our lives and just the reality of today's youth. I suppose
most straight people would cope with the fact that we were gay, but
would probably not want to think too much about the reality. But now
that we would be out, I gotta admit that we were a bit worried that a
guy we had slept with would think about selling a story, even though
we had always asked them to be discreet and they had always agreed.

It had taken the
paper three weeks to publish the article. They didn't put pressure on
us. They were actually pretty nice and they wanted to make sure we
were happy with what they would publish. We were given a copy of the
story they had written and we did ask them to make a few changes.
They wanted to print a picture, because obviously it would sell the
story better but we had refused. It's not that they would have
printed the picture they had used to blackmail us, but we just didn't
want them to use a picture. Our fans knew what we looked like and I
suppose other people would just have to look for information
somewhere else if they wanted to find out more about us. (maybe buy
our album! There were pictures in there! I was still thinking
straight, wasn't I?)

For our fans, who
were familiar with our lyrics, I was pretty sure it wouldn't come as
a surprise. It would just confirm their suspicions about Rob. (They
would probably be much more surprised by my coming out than his.
Because of Lucas and Rachel, our fans had just assumed I was
straight)

I guess our
coming out would be a bit like Boy George's, Neil Tennant's or George
Michael's, you know. But I think we were different from them though.
We were not tortured like George Michael or camp like Boy George. No,
at the end of the day, we were just your average gay guys... the guys
you would think are straight if you saw them walking down the street.
We were just normal guys from an ordinary middle-class, not to
mention catholic background, who just happened to like men. I might
be wrong, but I had this feeling that our coming out was going to do
more in terms of changing people's perceptions than what some
activists had done in a lifetime.

The article was
gonna cover the front page and be described as a "World
exclusive" with the headline "Don't hide your
love away. Robbie Howlett: I'm gay and I'm in love"

("Don't Hide
your love away" was not a song title but words from one of our
singles. Our fans would get the allusion)

I couldn't
believe that it was going to be on the front page though. Weren't
there more important things happening in the world than our
sexuality??? Famines, wars, people dying... and the biggest tabloid
in the UK (as well as the other newspapers that had taken up the
story) decide to put us on the cover? Not to mention radios and
television news broadcasts that were also going to feature our coming
out. It was a bit scary!

Well, here's what
people were going to read.....

[ In the
most moving showbiz interview you will ever read, UNI star Robbie
Howlett today tells the world he is gay.

With the
full support of the rest of the band, Robbie, 23, has decided to talk
freely about his love life for the first time.

For five
years he has avoided questions about his sexuality. Now – after
learning that someone was planning to sell a twisted version of his
story - he has made the momentous decision to be honest to himself
and his adoring fans.

Robbie
says: "This is the most important day of my life. From today I
will have the freedom to finally be myself."

Robbie
slumps back on a sofa and utters three words that will change his
life forever. "I am gay."

After five
years in the phenomenally successful rock band - UNI - Robbie, a rock
idol to young people around the world - has made the courageous
decision to come out.

Speaking
softly but with conviction, he says: "This is the hardest thing
I've ever had to do and probably the biggest gamble of my life, but I
owe it to our fans - as well as to myself - to be completely honest.
I know this may come as a bombshell to some of our followers. I only
hope they understand how important it is for me to reveal that I am
gay. Some of them will be upset - but even though I've always tried
to be discreet, I'm sure this will probably come as no surprise to
many."

Robbie's
words come at a time when UNI can claim the title of the
biggest-selling rock band of the last two years in Britain.

He says: "I
think the moment is now right to tell the world who I really am. UNI
are about to start a sell-out European tour and we've sold millions
of records but I can't begin to enjoy that success until I can be the
real me."

Robbie's
timing also owes a lot to the strength of his feeling for his partner
- guitarist of the band, Mark Emery.

Robbie and
Mark have known they were gay since they were teenagers. Robbie says:
"At school I dated girls, but by the time I was 13, I already
knew they weren't for me - simply because I knew I was in love with
Mark."

The couple
grew up together in the North side of Dublin and began their
relationship over 6 years ago at the age of 16. Mark recalls: "Robbie
and I have always been the best of friends. We were almost
inseparable growing up - we were like brothers - but when puberty
kicked in, we realised our feelings were stronger than friendship. We
had always had a special connection so being together felt like the
most natural thing in the world. It just felt right."

The strain
of keeping their relationship a secret has been enormous. Robbie
says: "There have always been rumours but more recently, I've
heard that some people were planning to sell a story about our
private life. I wanted our fans to hear the facts from Mark and me
before anyone else got the chance to publish a twisted version of the
truth. That would have been devastating. I hope the fans who have
supported us from day one will respect our honesty. I want to
reassure them that this will not affect UNI. We'll be around for
years to come. Anyone who has seen us performing live knows I always
give 100% and I will continue to do that. But the pressure to be
something I am not and the fear of a hurtful story being printed has
just become too intense."

Mark nods
in agreement and says: "I will always be there for Robbie. With
the support of our fans, I know life can be brilliant for us."

Until now,
the couple has gone to remarkable lengths to keep their relationship
secret. Robbie says: "We want to be with each other all the time
- and we are, because we live and work together - but we still are
under a lot of pressure when we are in public because we can never be
totally ourselves - there is always this fear of being discovered,
and at times, it can become unbearable - Until now, we have never
been totally able to relax and enjoy the simple pleasure of just
going out on a date together."

The other
members of UNI - Jordan Wright, Damon Wallace and Dylan Smith - and
the group's close-knit entourage have always been supportive of
Robbie and Mark's relationship. Robbie says: "They have all been
brilliant. We told Jordan, Damon and Dylan when we were 18, on the
very same day when we received a response from a record company
saying they were interested in us. Mark and I decided that we had to
be completely honest with them before we could allow the band to move
forward. We are like a family. Growing up, we spent so much more time
with each other than we did with our siblings. There is a real
brotherhood between us so we just could not keep this from them. They
have been very accepting and supportive. It has never created any
tension between us. We are the best of friends and that's what
friends are for."

Robbie and
Mark's problems only began when they and their band mates signed a
record deal in 1995. Mark recalls: "We desperately wanted to be
rock stars, but we decided right away that to admit to being gay
could jeopardize our chances of being successful. So at first, Robbie
and I told none in management. To be honest, I'm sure they suspected
but they were good enough never to raise the subject. We were so keen
to succeed that suppressing our real feelings was a small price to
pay. I'm sure that anyone that age would have done the same thing. We
didn't lie - We just weren't completely honest."

As the UNI
story went from strength to strength, the pressure on Robbie to talk
about his love life also grew stronger. Over the years, and
particularly the past 12 months, he has become adept at dodging
awkward questions.

Robbie
reveals: "Our close entourage has always known about our
relationship, and it was never a big deal but there was such a
feverish speculation about my private life in the media that Mark and
I just wanted to face the rumours head-on. We decided that we would
rather out ourselves than wait fearfully to be outed. There has been
a fair amount of innuendos about my sexuality and let's be honest, I
was often the one to create them. I have never, ever denied being
gay. I don't know how many times I've used the phrase "I would
probably disappoint you if I told you about my love life" - "No
wonder there were rumours," Mark laughs.

"But
now, Mark and I need to be honest with our fans because we are at a
stage in our relationship where we just don't want to hide anymore.
Plus being gay has a major impact on what we do musically. People
have been asking quite a lot of questions about the meaning of our
lyrics, and no matter how universal we try to keep them, we still
write about things that are very personal to us and it is becoming
harder to explain."

At the age
of 19, a year after the release of the band's first album, Robbie
broke the news to his family that he was gay. He told his mother Jane
first - or to be more precise, his mother made him tell. He reveals:
"She sat me down one evening after dinner and she asked, 'What
is happening between you and Mark?' I didn't know how to respond and
she said 'you're different when he's not around, as if you were a
little lost. But I think things are different now, since you've
started this band. You seem to be closer than ever. There seems to be
a closer bond between the two of you. But I'm starting to think that
it's a lot more than a simple bond.' And then I knew that she knew. I
looked away and she asked, 'Are you lovers?' so I just told her the
truth - and her reaction surprised me. She was very accepting. She
told me that she suspected and that the good thing about it was that
she had had time to sort out her feelings. She said it could be hard
to find love and that if Mark and I had it, then she was happy for
us. But she was a bit worried - being gay does make things
complicated."

It took the
brave youngster only a few hours to pluck up the courage to tell the
rest of his relatives. He recalls: "I broke the news to my
father, George, on the next day. It had been preying on my mind to
tell him and halfway through a conversation I just blurted out 'Dad.
Look, I'm gay' I knew that if my mother accepted the way I was, my
father would too."

"At
first he just sat there and then he smiled and said, 'So your mother
was right. Of course your mother was right - And what about Mark?'
and I just said 'yes he is too and we're in love' - I guess he was
hoping what my mother suspected wasn't true but he said 'Don't worry
son, I love you. But I'm gonna need some time to get used to this,'
and with time, he did. I couldn't have asked for more support."

Robbie's
brother Justin, 19 was also completely accepting. Robbie says: "It's
a great feeling to know that your family loves you unconditionally."

Unfortunately,
Mark's family has not been as understanding. He explains, "I've
always had a very adversarial relationship with my parents. We had a
lot of communication problems and when they found out I was gay, it
was the last straw that breaks the camel's back. They didn't want to
have anything to do with me from that moment on. To be honest, I
haven't talked a word to them since I told them over two years ago. I
don't know if this interview will change anything but I'd be very
surprised if it did."

Before
Robbie and Mark took the brave decision to come out, they admit they
were incredibly worried. Robbie says: "We had quite a few
sleepless nights worrying about what would be in the next morning's
papers. I remember one morning waking up and feeling so depressed
that I thought about running away - giving it all up and trying to
forget everything. We had to make a choice. We could either break
down and cry or stand up and be positive. That's what we're doing
now. This interview is the most positive thing we have ever done."

Mark adds:
"We have thought long and hard about this moment, but it's the
year 2000 and hopefully people are open-minded enough to accept us
for what we are."

Following
the release of UNI third album in March, the band shows every sign of
continuing their success into the new Millennium - another reason why
Robbie and Mark have decided to tell their story. Robbie says: "How
could we plan a future and still be hiding this secret? Being honest
about this is really a weight off our shoulders - I hope our story
helps teenage kids to face up to whatever problems they have and
encourages parents to be as understanding as mine have been."

Robbie and
Mark realize this interview will change their lives forever. In an
emotional appeal to their fans, Robbie says: "Today is one of
the most important days of our lives. From now on, everything will be
different. We know that and it's pretty scary. But I'm still the same
Robbie, still singing the same songs - some of which might have a
whole new meaning to you now - You have been with us through thick
and thin. We've given you smiles and we will continue to do that.
We've been strong for you, we've signed your autographs, answered
your letters and given the performances you deserve on stage. Now we
need you to be there for us. I know you won't let us down. See you on
tour!" ]

Well, it was over
and done! I decided to only mention my parents very briefly in the
interview. we wanted it to be positive, and not to mention Lucas. I
knew a lot of our fans knew about him and would probably wonder why I
had a two year old son if I was gay and had been with Rob for 6
years, but I decided I'd probably explain this in future interviews,
but not now, not in the Sun.

Now, we just had
to wait and see.... it was still early and as Damon had said... it
was going to be a long night...

---------------

Hope you enjoyed
this chapter! Please drop me a note if you did! I love hearing from
readers.

I'm no
journalist, but I wanted to include the article in the story, so the
interview has been modeled about Stephen Gately's coming out article
published in the Sun in June 1999. He was a member of Boyzone, an
Irish boy band. I kept a lot of things from the real interview as
what was said matched my characters and my story pretty well. Please
don't accuse me of plagiarism! lol

Join my Yahoo group to read more, see pictures of the characters
and read the band's message board. I wrote a few threads and you can
read the fans reactions to the boys' coming out, as well as
discussions about other topics such as fans meeting the band, Mark
chatting with the fans etc... it was fun for me to write that and
helped me create a clearer picture of the band. I hope you'll like
it!